What does it mean to serve your community?
Nowadays, companies and institutions, when they look at the applications, try to find someone who has done community services. Therefore, many students, including me, had done community services in order to put them in our resumes. Nevertheless, merely putting them in our resume is not the significant purpose of doing community services. What are we missing? What is true purpose for doing community services?
Attending Baruch College as Baruch scholars, we have asked to complete at least eight hours of community service in our surrounding community per year. Doing community services, we are able to develop the responsibility to our society. As Baruch scholars, we are receiving many privileges that benefit us in our studies and lives, such as the laptops, the scholarships, the honor courses, the earlier registration dates, and et cetera. However, while we are enjoying those benefits, it is the time to consider what we can give back to our community. And this is the true purpose for doing community services, not for nice statements in the resumes but for developing responsibilities to our society and for helping other people who do not get privileges like us. We are not the only one who lives in our community. There are many other people out there, starving, unemployed, and homeless. They need help, and we should help them.
As a freshman, I have not gone so far yet. Yet I don’t think being a freshman should be an excuse for not participating and involving in the community services. My group and I have started looking for non-profit organizations, which we are going to serve by next spring semester, for our community service project as Honor scholars. The community service project is the start but will not be the end.
Freshman year is meant to for you to explore. It’s not an excuse, but don’t feel bad if you haven’t found what you’re passionate about yet. That takes time. But I’m sure this is only the beginning.